Any person who is overweight, or who has at least 4-5 extra pounds, dreams of an effective diet for weight loss. It seems simple, affordable and effective: you can eat anything, in any quantity, and at the same time the weight will quickly melt. Too bad it's just a dream. According to experts, rapid weight loss is dangerous to health, especially if one loses 10-15 kg or more in a short time. This can lead to serious problems in the metabolism, hormones and internal organs. Of course, there are a number of diets that are balanced, reduced in calories and adequate in nutrients, but they lead to gradual weight loss. Let's try to find out how a good diet differs from a dangerous diet, and which ones are the most effective?
Rapid weight loss on a diet: why is it dangerous?
Of course, a significant weight loss in a short time is the most expected result for any overweight person. But doctors do not get tired of repeating that rapid weight loss can seriously harm both physical health and the psyche.
First, the lost kilograms, after the weight loss program is completed, can be put on again. Moreover, as a result, the weight may become even higher than it was originally. It is assumed that the optimal rate of weight loss is not more than 1, 5-2 kg per week. To lose 10 kg, you must have at least 5-7 weeks or even more.
Second, rapid weight loss is usually achieved through severe calorie restriction, fasting, or a combination of both with strenuous exercise. But these changes in life are not permanent, and after the "ideal" weight is reached, the person returns to his usual eating and activity habits. As a result, your body weight comes back and you have to lose weight again.
Thus, to achieve real success, you need to change your entire lifestyle, eating style and activity, creating conditions for constant calorie consumption and less intake from food.
An Effective Diet For Weight Loss: Does It Exist?
If we are talking about whether there is a universal and effective diet for weight loss that will help everyone, the answer is no. The causes of weight gain can be various factors, ranging from banal overeating, inactivity and laziness, ending with severe endocrine disorders and neurological diseases, pathologies of internal organs. For example, weight gain is typical of type 2 diabetes, Cushing's disease or hypothyroidism, Pickwick's syndrome, a pancreatic tumor (insulinoma) and many others.
Therefore, almost any balanced diet is suitable for relatively healthy people, which limits the calorie content of the diet a bit while providing the body with all the necessary nutrients. If you add regular exercise to this, then expand your daily activities - the weight will gradually go away. However, for patients with serious diseases, a special therapeutic diet is needed, taking into account the specific conditions of metabolic changes as well as parallel treatment of the underlying disease - removal of the tumor, correction of hormone levels, hypoglycemic drugs or insulin injections for diabetes.
Good diet: features in men
In addition to health status, gender differences also play a role in weight gain and loss. In men and women, the body stores and breaks down (breaks down) body fat in different ways, which is associated with evolutionary mechanisms. Therefore, a good diet that is ideal for men may not work at all and does not reduce a woman's body weight. But why is that?
Men, as it happened in ancient times, must hunt to provide food for their family. Therefore, they need strength, endurance and muscle mass so that they run, pull mammoths and escape from predators. Although times have changed today, the properties of the metabolism of the male body have remained the same. Therefore, they lose weight faster and easier if they reduce the calorie content of food and exercise. The male body burns fat faster than the female and builds muscle mass. Testosterone helps with this. As testosterone levels decrease with age, men also gain weight faster and lose it worse.
Men need more calories, more protein and fat, they are consumed faster. But they can eat less sugar, it provides fast energy, but it is not enough and it will not be enough for active muscle work in the long run, it is better to prefer complex carbohydrates from grains.
"Women" diet
The main purpose of a woman, seen from biology and evolution, is the successful birth and birth of children. For the fetus to actively develop, you need a lot of energy and nutrients. Therefore, the female body initially stores fat in the hips, partly in the waist and chest, back and arms. In addition to the cost during pregnancy, the energy cost during breastfeeding is just as important. Therefore, all women gain extra fat during pregnancy. This is an emergency supply for the whole breastfeeding if food is not enough.
Because of these features, women need less protein - their muscle mass is lower, but the beautiful half of humanity has an "evolutionary" craving for sweet foods. It is from carbohydrates that you can easily and quickly get a lot of energy that can be stored in the form of subcutaneous fat. The total caloric content of the female diet is lower. Evolutionarily women engaged in gathering and household chores, their bodies did not need as many muscles as men. A woman's diet should include saturated fat, some protein and complex carbohydrates. If light carbohydrates prevail, the sparse body will immediately transfer excess energy to a reserve form - fats in problem areas.
Trendy diets: good or bad?
Every diet, no matter how good it is, has both its pros and cons, contraindications to use. So, for example, the keto diet that is popular today, according to researchers from Austria, can cause psoriasis rashes. Researchers have noted that keto diets, which include medium-term triglycerides, along with omega-3 fatty acids derived from nuts, seeds and fish oil, can be predictive of psoriasis flare-ups. A study entitled "The Effect of Ketogenic Diets on Psoriasis-Like Skin Inflammation" was published in August 2019 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Therefore, people with a hereditary predisposition to this disease should avoid losing weight by using this diet which is in vogue today.